Claire Saffitz

Contributor

Claire Saffitz is a freelance recipe developer and video host. Previously, she was Senior Food Editor at Bon Appétit magazine, where she worked for five years in the test kitchen. She hosted the series Gourmet Makes on the Bon Appétit YouTube channel, where she used her classical pastry knowledge to reverse engineer popular snack foods and candy.

Recipes & Menus

Fregola with Peas, Mint, and Ricotta

Fregola, a tiny toasted pasta similar to pearled couscous, makes a flavorful base for this brothy spring dinner.

Recipes & Menus

Collard Greens Salad with Ginger and Spicy Seed Brittle

When dressing hardy raw greens, it's good to be aggressive. Fortunately, we've got spicy ginger and seedy flavor bombs on hand.

Recipes & Menus

Garlic Confit Toast

Lush confited garlic takes toasty, cheesy baguettes to another level.

Recipes & Menus

Chocolate Éclairs

The éclairs will begin to get soggy as soon as they are filled, so be sure to wait until just before you're ready to make the chocolate fondant to add the pastry cream.

Recipes & Menus

Cream Puffs with Vanilla Pastry Cream

For this cream puffs recipe, if you don’t have any pastry bags handy, cut off the tops with a serrated knife and carefully spoon in the pastry cream.

Recipes & Menus

Chouquettes with Chantilly Cream

When properly baked, the puffs should have a firm but not crusty exterior, and a moist but airy center.

Recipes & Menus

Slow-Cooker Beer-Braised Brisket

Broiling the brisket gives it a nice crisp top layer, but you can skip this step and it will still be delicious. Braising the meat with beer in the slow cooker, however? Absolutely necessary.

Recipes & Menus

Cauliflower-Cashew Soup With Crispy Buckwheat

Simmering vegetables in a covered pot over low heat so that they steam in their own liquid—a French technique called à l'étouffée—is the ticket to achieving a soup with pronounced depth. We love this method with cauliflower, but also try it with celeriac or rutabagas.

Recipes & Menus

Double-Dark Chicken Noodle Soup

Our best-ever chicken stock begins with wings, which have a high skin-to-meat ratio. Browning the wings results in lots of caramelized nooks and crannies that imbue the stock with a deep, savory flavor.

Recipes & Menus

Kale Minestrone

Skip expensive store-bought stock: you can extract cleaner, stronger broth from water and a few pantry items you probably already have on hand (think bacon, tomato paste, herbs, peppercorns, a Parm rind, and, of course, kosher salt).

Recipes & Menus

Lemon Bars

Baked lemon bars will be stable and set at room temperature. Unbaked bars should be refrigerated until ready to serve, otherwise the lemon curd will soften. This is part of BA's Best, a collection of our essential recipes.